


Conquest of Spaces

by JustAnotherBlonde



Series: The Lights Will Guide You Home [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Androids, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eternal vs. Ephemeral Art, Falling In Love, IN SPACE!, M/M, Naruto Sci-Fi Week 2020, Near Death, Outer Space, Pining, Sasori 34 Deidara 18, Space CPR, Space Flight, Spaces conquered but there’s still a quite a distance for these two to traverse, Spaceships, space disaster, zero-gravity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27777967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherBlonde/pseuds/JustAnotherBlonde
Summary: Drifting through interstellar space on their way to a mission, Sasori and Deidara are ripped from private introspection by an unexpected rogue planet, spelling near-disaster for their ship. In the aftermath, will Deidara find Sasori ready to start the conquest of spaces that have been expanding between the two of them?Every so often on their way to a mission, Sasori would bring the ship out of hyperdrive and let it “drift” through deep space. In the vast, unchanging silence of an interstellar void, it was easy to forget that the “drifting” ship was actually hurtling along at 100 million kilometers/galaxy-standard-hour. Here, trillions of kilometers stretched between them and the nearest celestial body. The view outside the cockpit was a gemstone-studded blanket of eternal night, spiraling clusters of pinprick stars etching out the edges of their galaxy.For all its beauty, the stillness of it always chafed at Deidara.
Relationships: Deidara/Sasori (Naruto)
Series: The Lights Will Guide You Home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032099
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16
Collections: Naruto Sci-fi Week!





	1. Rogue Planet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Naruto Sci-Fi Week**  
>  Dec 4th - ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟﾟ  
> Across the Stars / Zero-G Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** part of the description is a song lyric from Woodkid’s Conquest of Spaces. full lyrics in end notes.
> 
> this takes place before the events in "[Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27352738/chapters/66834760)," a year before the mission to capture Gaara—this is pre-time travel Sasori. Sasori 34, Deidara 18.
> 
> in this AU, canon events and facts are all still true, just taking place in a high-tech space/intergalactic ninja world setting. so Akatsuki is still a criminal organisation, Deidara was still recruited young, Sasori no longer has a human body, etc. Ninja countries are now solar systems, and the villages are planets. 
> 
> i was looking into the timeline for Akatsuki recruitment and it gets a little fucky… Orochimaru left around when Itachi first joins, when he’s about thirteen? But in that year Deidara would have been 10. It doesn’t give enough time for Dei to make a name for himself in the Explosion Corps, steal the jutsu and then become a missing nin. So for the sake of this fic, let’s say he was fourteen when he was recruited.

**Conquest of Spaces**

Every so often on their way to a mission, Sasori would bring the ship out of hyperdrive and let it “drift” through deep space. In the vast, unchanging silence of an interstellar void, it was easy to forget that the “drifting” ship was actually hurtling along at 100 million kilometers/galaxy-standard-hour. Here, trillions of kilometers stretched between them and the nearest celestial body. The view outside the cockpit was a gemstone-studded blanket of eternal night, spiraling clusters of pinprick stars etching out the edges of their galaxy.

For all its beauty, the stillness of it always chafed at Deidara.

He itched to be in the center of _something_ , a flurry of planet-side action, surrounded by swirling smoke and flame, ears drowning in the scrape-clank of kunai and shuriken. And yet… He stole a sideways glance. Sasori stared forward out the window, his body perfectly still, the stars dancing in his eyes.

The view may have looked static in the visual spectrum, but Sasori’s ocular implants could see far, far beyond these frequencies. Microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma… Swapping through different frequencies, the sedate scene became a riotous whorl of gases and infinitesimal particles. He never grew tired of gazing at the ever-shifting clouds of the interstellar medium: they reminded him of many things, not least the blowing sands of Suna. Patterns endlessly, eternally cycling across a backdrop of stationary stars.

He had never shared any of these thoughts with Deidara.

Sasori was the captain, and that left Deidara with no choice but to indulge Sasori in this whim. Sasori had also made it a rule that Deidara was not permitted to attempt to chat with him during these moments, leaving Deidara to spend far more time lost in introspection than he would have ever considered humanly possible for himself. The stars were boring. He let his gaze fall on Sasori again.

If Deidara’s count was correct, exactly four galaxy-standard years to the day had passed since Deidara had been recruited to Akatsuki and assigned to Sasori’s two-man team. In that time, how many missions had they completed together? Thirty? Fifty? A hundred? Sasori would know. His hard drives stored every memory. He could recall in perfect detail every target they had ever eliminated, every city they had ever annihilated, every constellation they had ever seen…

But constellations were meaningless when you traveled across the stars as they did. The Bull that Deidara had been born under was only the Bull on Iwa. Standing on the shores of Nami, those stars appeared nowhere near each other. Meaningless. And yet, Sasori remembered them and knew their positions. And sometimes when he was feeling generous and there was nothing else to do, he would snake an optic cable into Deidara’s ocular augment and they would watch them together, remembering all the places they had been.

“Deidara.” Sasori’s voice was soft and even, as always. Never betraying any emotion.

“Yes, Danna,” Deidara responded. He blinked. He had been staring at Sasori without seeing him.

“Please stop.”

“I’m sorry, Sasori-no-danna, mn.” Deidara’s reply was automatic. He lowered his gaze in deference. This was usually where he would let fly a witty comment, but for once his mind was empty. All this introspection was rotting his brain.

Sasori had been very clear from the beginning of their partnership: if Pein had given him the choice, he would have worked alone, as he had done before Deidara was recruited. To have Deidara, a flashy, upstart _child_ forced upon him had initially been more than he could bear. Deidara, fourteen years old, practically feral from the foster system he’d survived on Iwa, was everything Sasori hated: loud, destructive and curious. He refused to answer Deidara’s probing questions (“Where are you from?” “A _human_ ‘droid? Who was he?” “What’s your favourite food?”), forcing him to learn through observation that Sasori did not need to eat, and to hear through their enemies that he was Sasori Akasuna: Scorpion of the Red Sands, the planet Suna’s most feared missing-nin. He still had yet to learn who Sasori’s favourite ‘droid had been in another life.

But Deidara could tell that Sandaime had been someone Sasori greatly admired.

Extraverted as he was, it had taken Deidara quite some time to learn how to silently observe his partner as he worked. But when he finally managed to shut his mouth, open his eyes and actually _see_ Sasori, he had discovered more nuance than an ancient oil painting. How many volumes of personal history were revealed in the fearsome light which shone in Sasori’s eyes in the heat of battle? In the elated, power-crazed expression that appeared when he was at the edge of victory? In the reverent tenderness with which he beheld his ‘droids during maintenance?

Or even now: as he stared off into the stars, sadness and longing curved the corners of his mouth and hung heavy on his eyelids. Every once in a while, _something_ would cause the layers of his apathetic stare to peel away. Sasori may no longer inhabit a human body, but echoing within his hollow android shell were the emotions of someone who had once possessed a pulsing, bleeding heart. And if once upon a time, Sasori had felt _something_ for _someone_ , perhaps it was not outside the realm of possibility now, Deidara believed.

He longed to stir a tsunami in Sasori’s deathlike tranquility.

“Is something wrong?” Sasori did not turn his head to look at Deidara, but extended his chakra to sense his body, scanning for malaise. “You have been exceptionally quiet.”

Deidara sighed and disrupted Sasori’s chakra with a short burst of his own. It had taken some time to get used to _that_ little invasion of privacy. Sasori argued that he had to know the state of his partner at all times in order to make strategic decisions. Deidara had been unable to convince him that _normal_ people just _asked_.

He hung his head, his blond fringe shaking forward. Sasori was always harping on him to cut his hair short, give up the ponytail… He had a point: long hair was a liability when it came time to put on a helmet for a spacewalk. So he’d buzzed off everything but the hair on top, leaving the fringe and ponytail.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine, mn.” He stood and moved towards the door, adjusting his jet-black spacesuit where it had bunched up from sitting. The lightweight suit was meant for traveling, so Deidara wore his all the time. It was flexible enough to be worn planet-side, capable of regulating body temperature in conditions ranging from -50 to 800 Kelvin—you couldn’t wear it into a sun, but you could survive outer space and the surfaces of most planets in the galaxy—and fully equipped to become a closed life-support system for spacewalks, planned or unplanned. The mini UV reactor installed on the nape of the neck could cycle carbon dioxide into oxygen almost indefinitely, and in case of emergencies, the retractable hood would deploy automatically. Deidara’s was rigged to seal around his hair fastener.

The door’s hydraulics hissed as Deidara punched the release. He stood framed in the doorway just behind Sasori’s chair. The large, red-cloud Akatsuki insignia on the back of his suit glowed brightly in the starlight. Without turning, he added “I’m hungry. I’ll be in the galley if you need—”

Sasori’s hand shot out, his fingers curling around Deidara’s wrist. Deidara was startled, almost alarmed by this action. He turned. Sasori was still staring out the cockpit window.

“Look…” Sasori breathed.

There, in the upper left corner of the window and moving closer by the second, was a rogue planet.

In the visual spectrum, its surface was dark, but Deidara could make out several rings looping around the planet’s belly.

“Infrared,” Sasori commanded, and Deidara swapped the setting on his ocular augment.

Stunning. The planet was dead and cold, but the side in “front” where it pushed through swirling clouds of interstellar medium glowed with friction-generated heat. The rings, perfect concentric circles held in place by the planet’s gravity, had a similar glow.

“It’s beautiful,” Deidara murmured. He sunk down, perching on the armrest of Sasori’s seat. “Can I…?

Sasori extended the optical cable before Deidara could finish the question. Deidara’s augment could only analyze visual and infrared spectrums. Linked with Sasori, seeing through his eyes, the planet became even more breathtaking.

“It’s a gas giant, mn,” Deidara commented. “Is it worth attempting a landing? Are there any resources we could collect?”

Sasori shook his head. “We don’t have room for anything. The ship needs to be empty when we arrive on Kiri.”

“Danna, it’s getting closer…”

“We’ll be fine.”

Deidara detached the optical cable and poked at his copilot terminal screen. “Our trajectory is gonna take us really fucking close to the rings, Danna… mn,” he said, brows pinching together in concern.

Sasori tapped his own terminal screen, looked up at the planet with his own eyes, then at the computer’s analysis.

“Shit, there’s another ring. Outermost. You’re right, we’re on a collision course.”

They both took their positions. With a flick of a chakra string, Sasori activated the automatic safety webbing, securing them both to their seats in case of gravity loss. Moving in tandem, each took his set of controls: Sasori monitored the defenses and prepared the plasma cannons to eliminate obstacles before they struck the ship, while Deidara synced into the flight and navigation systems. Although Sasori piloted the ship as a rule, in times like this it was up to Deidara. He was a brilliant pilot, one of the best Sasori had ever seen at split-second evasions, speed control and maneuvering. And all that with nothing but a weak human meatball for a brain.

The rings were fast approaching. Switching to infrared vision, both prepared for the worst.

“Just like that mission in the Cloud system, mn,” Deidara drawled, smiling grimly.

“That was an asteroid belt, Deidara,” Sasori shot back. “Planetary rings are far denser. We’re not getting through this without a few bumps and scratches.”

“Here we go! Mn!”

The ship alarms blared and the cockpit flooded with ominous red light.

“PROXIMITY ALERT. PROXIMITY ALERT.”

The stars outside the cockpit window disappeared, replaced by a flurry of rocks.

_Bang!_ The ship rocked at the first impact. The controls jerked and strained beneath Deidara’s hands. The tongue-like tendrils in his palm orifices wound around the handles; he added chakra to stabilize his grip.

_Bang-bang-bang!_ The ship bucked and rolled as it was struck multiple times. Sasori unloaded the plasma cannons, clearing a path for them in a burst of white light. The silent explosion reached their ears only as the soft _pang-pang-pang_ of rock dust striking the ship.

Sasori shot Deidara an exasperated look. “Get us out of here, kid! What are you trying to prove by flying _through_ this mess?”

Deidara’s expression was one of pure concentration. “Bear with me… mn.”

They banked left, right, over, under, swapping orientation until the planet was behind the ship and they were heading up, up, up and out of the rings. Just then, a huge, jagged rock loomed into view, rising out of nowhere: Deidara had thought the debris would be smaller towards the edge of the ring: where had this monstrosity come from?

Sasori screamed: “GET US OUT OF HERE, NOW!”

But it was too late. The rock scraped across their upper hull, and with a foreboding _crack_ , a fracture appeared on the cockpit window. With a furious hiss, oxygen began to pour out the hole, the motion forcing the ship down towards the planet.

Deidara grappled with the controls. Sasori lent his aid; between the two of them the could surely navigate out of this mess before—

When the cockpit window gave way in shards and hurtled into space, all sound was sucked away with the departing oxygen. Cabin temperature instantly dropped, cold as the void outside. Deidara was pulled forward, his golden fringe flowing in every direction as the gravity system failed.

His hood did not deploy.

((Deidara, your hood!)) Sasori tried to exclaim, but his voice made no sound.

Sasori tried to do a dozen things at once:

Using all available sensors and his own chakra cast as far as he could reach beyond the ship’s hull, he sought the location of the remaining rocks blocking their ship from exiting the rings; he attempted to activate Deidara’s hood with a chakra string—nothing—pinch Deidara awake—no reaction—he sucked the last bit of the cockpit’s escaping oxygen into his artificial lungs—just in case—then activated the emergency windscreen shield—why hadn’t he thought of that first?—no, why hadn’t it deployed automatically? what was wrong with this piece of junk ship??—

Plasma cannons recharged but lacking a window for visual and relying solely on the ship’s sensors, he blasted a path through the last few rocks, took navigation controls from an unconscious Deidara, assessed the ship’s condition, sealed all breaches, reactivated the air circulation system—broken—reactivated the gravity system—malfunctioning—

((Shit!)) he hissed. ((Shit, shit!))

They were free of the ring, out in open space once again. With the window breach sealed, cabin temperature was slowly returning to normal. The frost which had formed on Deidara’s lashes was melting away. Sasori almost released a sigh, an old, old habit, but he remembered just in time what his lungs contained.

He would deal with gravity machine later. Oxygen, oxygen—Sasori’s fingers and chakra strings flew over his control terminal, diagnosing, tweaking—there was something mechanically wrong down below—shit—how much more time did Deidara have?

The blond’s limbs floated lifelessly in zero-G. His body strained slightly against the safety webbing. Sasori released his own webbing and swung himself over to Deidara. He wove the fingers of his left hand into Deidara’s webbing to stabilize himself, then straddling Deidara’s lap, placed his face close so that his ocular implants could scan Deidara’s vitals: no heartbeat, no breath, very little brain activity.

Sasori commenced resuscitation. He stretched his legs out behind himself and braced his feet on the frame of the dashboard. In zero-G, he needed to counterbalance himself against something to begin chest compressions or he would merely float away at the first push.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Night. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three. Twenty-four. Twenty-five. Twenty-six. Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-night. Thirty.

He pulled himself closer, planted his lips on Deidara’s, pinched the blond’s nose, and pushed the oxygen he had saved into Deidara’s lungs. This next part was crucial. Deidara’s body needed to respond, send the air back into Sasori’s mouth with an exhale or the air would be wasted. The ship was completely devoid of oxygen. This lungful was all they had.

A faint, faint heartbeat pulsed, and Deidara’s body softly expelled the air back into Sasori’s mouth. He remained unconscious, but at least the body’s basic functions had returned.

However, unlike the space suit, Sasori's body was not made to filter carbon dioxide into oxygen: with every exhale, the air became more and more toxic to Deidara’s body. Deidara would die if Sasori couldn't get the space suit working. But at least Sasori’s body didn’t need to breathe: if both of them were processing the air, Deidara would be poisoned doubly quickly. Keeping his mouth locked around Deidara's, forcing Deidara’s lungs to expand with each breath, he probed the suit with chakra strings, seeking the source of its malfunction. The hood should have automatically deployed as soon as the suit detected a lack of oxygen.

Inhale. There. He found it. Exhale. A wire in the neck had snapped, bent out of shape from frequent wear. Inhale. He set to work. With the infinite reach of his chakra strings, there was nothing he couldn’t fix. Exhale.

Deidara stirred beneath him.

Blink. Blink. Blue eyes dull and dark. Inhale. Dreaming. Surfacing to consciousness.

Deidara jerked beneath Sasori’s mouth, eyes wide and panicked, but Sasori held firm, bound him with chakra to prevent him from breaking free and endangering himself. Just one more thing to tweak…

There. Sasori forced all of the air into Deidara’s lungs, then released the hood. It snapped into position like it was supposed to. A flexible plastic bubble contained Deidara’s facial features, and the wire-ribbed Kevlar hood cupped the back of his head. His ridiculous ponytail sprouted out the top. He exhaled, fogging up the bubble, then drew a deep, deep inhale as the suit began to do its job, recycling the carbon dioxide and returning it to him as oxygen.

((That was close,)) Sasori mouthed. No air, no sound.

Their faces still bare centimeters apart, Deidara stared at him, breathing slowly through slightly parted lips. He slowly lifted his right hand to his face, his mouth, fingers lightly tapping the plastic shield.

Then, remembering, Sasori activated their private comm system—the transmitter in his throat converted his vocalizations into radio waves and relayed them to receivers in Deidara’s hood.

“That was close,” he repeated. He gazed steadily at Deidara.

Deidara blinked, illusion dispelled.

“You saved my life, Danna…” Deidara said slowly, his suit in turn sending the sound of his voice to Sasori’s audio receivers via radio wave. “Thank you… I guess. Mn.”

He shifted within his safety webbing and realized that Sasori was floating just above his lap. Sasori gripped the webbing over Deidara’s chest with one hand, while the other loosely held Deidara’s wrist. He was sensing Deidara’s pulse with his thumb, pressing on the supple synthetic material. These hands were _Sasori’s_ work, perfect android parts which seamlessly joined Deidara’s circulatory and nervous systems, indestructible material flowing with Deidara’s own blood and chakra, based on Deidara’s original monstrosities, upon which mouths had sprouted as part of a stolen forbidden jutsu. The upgrade meant Deidara could perform his jutsu without gloves in any environmental condition.

Sasori took his hand away and pushed himself aside, drifting up towards the ceiling.

“I had to save you. I can’t complete the mission without you,” Sasori responded, his eyes sliding away from Deidara’s face.

Deidara’s heart clenched. What kind of a response had he been hoping for? His lips were still tingling with the memory of Sasori’s mouth. Self-conscious, he pursed and chewed his lips, as if this would erase what had happened.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Sasori continued, pushing himself across the cockpit to the open door. If Deidara hadn’t left it open when he’d tried to leave earlier, the cockpit wouldn’t have lost so much air. “Gravity and air systems are malfunctioning. There may be more holes than just this one.”

Deidara released his webbing and propelled himself along the corridor after Sasori. Sasori never wore a space suit—he didn’t need one. Inside the ship he wore a loose, sand-colored shirt over relaxed black breeches. He always flew barefoot, but planet-side he would tuck the breeches into knee-high boots. On missions he usually covered this casual clothing with his Akatsuki robes or merely remain within Hiruko, his largest ‘droid. In zero-G, the overlarge shirt gaped as Sasori moved, affording Deidara with glimpses of Sasori’s stomach, waist, and lower back. When the angle was right, he could see all the way up to his armpit.

“Focus,” Deidara muttered to himself.

“What?” Sasori turned as he floated forward, his brown eyes ever-so-slightly clouded in confusion. Emotion.

“Nothing!” Deidara replied sharply. His spacesuit felt warm. “Guess I’m still a little disoriented, mn.”

Sasori held his gaze a moment longer, then before either could say anything more, they arrived at the passage that would take them to the lower level of the ship.

Thankfully, the airlock here had done its job. The door over the ladder leading to the loading bay and the galley on the mezzanine was sealed, which meant at least some of their oxygen had been preserved below.

Deidara checked the control panel on the door. It showed air quality and temperature readings for the room they were in as well as the space behind the door.

“There’s air below,” he said, looking over at Sasori. “Let’s equalize pressure throughout the ship first, then get oxygen levels up after we fix the circulation system, mn.”

Sasori nodded and Deidara released the door. A soft warm puff of air rose from the cavity, gently nudging them upwards.

They exchanged a look, a near-smile of relief, then descended to begin their work.

☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟﾟ

Deidara and Sasori worked at opposite ends of the gravity machine room, inspecting the wiring that lay beneath one of the wall panels. They had restored function to the air circulation system first, and since the water electrolysis device had remained undamaged, a sufficient amount of oxygen had been generated to fill the ship. Deidara was able to remove his hood, but his hairstyle did not look quite as striking without gravity to hold it in place. He had been forced to pull all of it back into a bun on top of his head.

“I just can’t figure out what’s wrong with this thing! Mn!” Deidara wailed, throwing aside his pliers petulantly. This action set him rotating towards the center of the room until his momentum ran out.

Sasori caught the pliers with a chakra string, but he did not move to help Deidara, flailing in the center of the room with nothing to grab onto.

“Sasori?” Deidara called, blue eyes pleading.

“You don’t need me to help you. Use your own chakra. Or your bots.”

“Oh yeah.”

Deidara’s expandable exploding nanobots were his pride and joy. The design was his own original work. He had trillions stored in the pouches he took on missions, and several hundred thousand hidden in his palms.

He released enough to form a smooth, white, melon-sized (and equally rotund) bird, the bots stretching and merging seamlessly when Deidara activated his chakra. He grinned as the bird-bot flapped its wings and pushed him back over to his side of the open panel.

“Why must your creations always look so ugly?” Sasori grimaced. He redoubled his concentration on the wiring, hoping to use chakra to detect the malfunction where Deidara could not.

“Why are you always so critical of my art, mn?” Deidara shot back, sending his bird to snatch the pliers out of Sasori’s hand. The bird sailed through zero-G without issue, powered by the nanobots’ tiny propulsion systems, and snapped up the pliers in its fat beak.

“Because it isn’t art,” Sasori said flatly, hands now empty. He still hadn’t found the problem in the machine.

“What, and your ‘droids are?” Deidara picked at a loose wire with the pliers, trying to determine whether it had a function or had merely been left there following a repair.

“My ‘droids are indestructible. Yours are a waste of resources,” Sasori grumbled. This was an old argument, one they’d had countless times over the years, as familiar and comfortable as the clothing he wore.

“Art is an explosion,” Deidara returned. Sasori almost muttered the words along with him. “And I can’t explode them without destroying them. You can’t deny it’s an incredibly effective method for ending missions. If Pein didn’t like it, he’d stop funding me, mn.”

Deidara pulled himself a meter along the wall to inspect the next section of wire. He looked over at Sasori and added, “And your ‘droids aren’t cheap either. Restocking senbon, all the ingredients for your poisons—”

“Don’t even _pretend_ the expenses are equal!” Sasori retorted. He too moved a meter closer along the wall. Looking at the wires, he decided he’d have a better angle if he oriented himself with his feet near the ceiling. “I do the expense reports—I should know.”

Rolling his eyes, Deidara moved to the next section. He hadn’t quite finished with the last bit: he was distracted by the conversation. Sasori hung down from the ceiling, his head at Deidara’s eye level. There was just over a meter between them.

“So my art isn’t art because it costs too much?” Deidara retorted. “That doesn’t seem like a good enough reason, mn.”

Sasori’s eyes flashed. “Your art isn’t art because true art is eternal. Timeless, made to last, treasured and remembered forever after the artist is gone.”

Deidara was quiet for a moment. He lowered his pliers and stared at the wiring.

“Why would you expect anyone to remember you after you die?” he mumbled. “It’s pointless. If there’s one thing people are good at, it’s forgetting, mn.”

Sasori processed this response. It was a new addition to their years-old argument. What did he mean by it? He seemed… sad? Why was Deidara acting so strangely today? He drifted a little closer.

Then the blond looked up with a big grin. “I’d want to go out with a big bang, and whether they remember me for that or not, I couldn’t care less! I’d be dead, mn.”

“You’re an idiot,” Sasori’s mouth replied before he could think. He extended an arm—Deidara was an arms’-length away below him now, their heads on a level but bodies the inverse of one another—and placed his hand on Deidara’s cheek. His sensors registered the skin as soft and warm, but that didn’t explain the shiver that travelled up his spine.

Deidara looked up at him expectantly, biting his lip.

“And I don’t want you to die just yet,” Sasori finished.

He took his hand back.

Deidara grabbed it.

“Danna, I…”

Sasori took his hand back again and looked away.

“Why don’t you go check the autopilot. See how much longer we have until we get to Kiri. This might be a problem for a planet-side maintenance crew. I’ll take one last look down here.”

“Yes, Danna,” Deidara replied. His heart pounded in his throat at the same time as it sank to his boots. He propelled himself towards the door.

Catching the frame, he turned, floating just outside the room.

“The window’s broken. We can’t watch the stars anymore today, mn.”

Sasori frowned and pretended to busy himself with the wires in front of his nose.

“We need to go into hyperdrive anyway, kid,” he replied. “The mission. No more time for star-gazing.”

Looking up in time to see Deidara’s face fall, he added: “We can get the window fixed after the mission. I wouldn’t want to travel without it.”

“Danna…” Deidara began, still hesitating just outside the door. He knew Sasori hated answering his questions, but Deidara was not one to give up so easily. He had to try. “Why do you like to watch the stars?”

Sasori regarded him, his expression soft. For once, he felt Deidara deserved an answer to this. After all, if they hadn’t come out of hyperdrive, they wouldn’t have encountered the rogue planet. He had put their lives in danger.

“It’s not the stars but the spaces between them that I love,” he replied, blinking slowly.

He sent himself in the direction of the door by kicking off the wall, catching a pipe on the opposite side of the room, and somersaulting down to the same orientation as Deidara. He landed at the door on the inside of the doorframe, stopping just before colliding into Deidara, using chakra strings like a parachute to leave precisely the span of the doorframe between their bodies and faces.

“When we’re flying between stars like that,” Sasori continued, his gaze fixed on Deidara’s face, “time stands still and a single moment feels like forever.”

“I… see…” Deidara breathed. He felt lightheaded. Had the air thinned again? Was there another leak?

Sasori’s expression clouded again: puzzlement, concern, more emotion.

“Why don’t you go lie down?” he said softly. He extended his chakra strings, let them traverse Deidara’s body, assessing his condition. Deidara shivered beneath his touch but did not shake him off this time.

His eyes were closed when Sasori completed his assessment. Deidara’s body had been weakened in its oxygen-deprived state. He would need a bit of time to recover before they could begin the mission.

“Go rest,” Sasori repeated.

Deidara opened his eyes and nodded.

“I’ll come check on you after I’ve finished here.”

Sasori’s hand was on Deidara’s forearm.

“Mn.”

Deidara flipped his hand around and caught Sasori’s. Sasori’s lips parted in surprise. Deidara squeezed his hand once, avoiding Sasori’s eyes, then set off down the corridor to his sleeping quarters without a backwards glance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This piece was heavily inspired by Conquest of Spaces by Woodkid
> 
> Stretched to the core of galaxies  
> Distorted city grids  
> By a black hole of vanity  
> Blossoms the age of greed
> 
> Beyond the laws of density  
> Towers of glass and steel  
> Temples and fragments of memories  
> Drifting away from me
> 
> I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces  
> Expanding between you and me  
> Come with the night the science of fighting  
> The forces of gravity
> 
> After the gates of prophecies  
> A million light years away from me  
> Straight for the eyes of destiny  
> Reaching the point of tears
> 
> Behind the dreams of mastery  
> Love dies silently  
> Torn to the flesh as the fire bleeds  
> Echoes of history
> 
> I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces  
> Expanding between you and me  
> Come with the night the science of fighting  
> The forces of gravity


	2. Almost Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Naruto Sci-Fi Week**  
>  Dec 5th - ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟﾟ  
>  ~~Artificial Intelligence~~ / Access: Denied

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt used for this piece was "Access: Denied" - basically, there’s a part in this story where your mind should go “ha, access: denied 😄”
> 
> Title and many themes here come from the song “Almost Human” from Blade Runner: 2049

The ship was peacefully quiet as Sasori drifted down the corridor to Deidara’s quarters. They were on course for Kiri and if nothing _else_ went wrong, they’d drop out of hyperdrive in six galaxy-standard hours. He had been unable to make any improvements to the gravity machine, but they had been without gravity before. It was unnecessary, an indulgence, really. In fact, Sasori found it much easier to move through the ship if he didn’t have to pretend to walk like a human. If he wanted, he could use his chakra strings to float like this all the time, even with gravity. But that tended to disturb people.

The hull breach earlier had been frightening, even he had to admit it. Long had it been since he’d _felt_ anything quite like the emotions which still seemed to be plaguing his body even now. His hand trembled as he raised it to his forehead, which his palm sensors told him was above normal temperature. Why were his systems overheating like this? Had the breach affected his body in some way?

He paused and ran a diagnostic. Nothing was wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be reacting like this. Something _must_ be wrong. He couldn’t imagine what it might be.

Deidara’s room was just ahead. Sasori had never entered it. He had no idea what the space looked like, although if the way Deidara left the galley after preparing a meal for himself was anything to judge by, he imagined it must be a disaster.

He hesitated by the door. Why would he hesitate?

He knocked. And waited.

There was no answer.

“Deidara?” he called. He linked into the comm system and projected his voice into the room.

There was still no answer. He must be sleeping. Sasori turned to leave.

The door hissed open.

“Come in, mn.” Deidara’s murmur rolled out of the dark depths of the room.

It was worse than Sasori had imagined. The room didn’t _smell_ , exactly, but it was clearly well lived-in. Sasori’s particle detectors were almost overwhelmed by the amount of _Deidara_ exuding from the space. Skin, hair, sweat, other... elements. He set a reminder to purchase Deidara a small vacuum-bot after the mission, or perhaps install a better air-filtration system in this room.

Blinking, he stepped inside and took in the space visually. There was enough light streaming in from the corridor that he didn’t need to use infrared. It was cluttered—or at least it would have been, had there been gravity. Every available surface must have had _something_ on it, but now, it all floated within the room like the galaxy’s most disorganized solar system. Over the desk hovered a wasteland of unfinished nanobot prototypes and tools. There was a computer terminal attached to the wall in one corner, beside which floated a broken chair with charred upholstery—he’d have to ask about that. The space near the floor was adrift with containers, boots he had been unaware that Deidara owned, and other hazards.

Sasori bit back all of the snide remarks his mind presented him with and pushed his way through the debris to the bed. Deidara had strapped himself in after cocooning in a blanket. He still wore his spacesuit—just in case.

Seeing Deidara bundled up, looking small and vulnerable, a strange thought surfaced in Sasori’s mind: he wished that they could be somewhere planet-side, somewhere safe, somewhere they didn’t have to worry about Deidara’s fragile body succumbing to the unsurvivable void of deep space. What a strange thing to wish.

“How are you feeling?” Sasori asked as he approached. He pulled himself down and bent his legs to kneel midair at the head of the bed.

Deidara turned his face up, blinking sleepily in the near-dark.

“Close the door or my stuff will get out, mn,” he mumbled, snuggling deeper into his blanket.

Sasori flicked a chakra string. The room darkened at the loss of light.

“Activate night light, mn,” Deidara commanded his room. A dim glow began to emanate from panels along the base of the room’s walls.

“How are you feeling?” Sasori repeated.

“I’m okay,” Deidara replied, gazing up at Sasori with sleepy eyes. His hair was down, most of it tucked into the blanket, but a few pieces were floating around his head like a nest of golden snakes.

Sasori discovered his hand halfway to combing through those errant strands. He arrested its motion and placed both hands on the edge of the bed, steadying himself.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he whispered, looking away.

Deidara’s blue eyes were wide and questioning, sleep instantly forgotten.

“What are you talking about, mn?” he asked lightly. For some reason his throat was very dry. Before Sasori came in to check on him, he’d tossed and turned, slipped in and out of sleep. He was having a hard time forgetting the sensation of Sasori’s lips. His heart was doing funny things in his chest now at the way the glow of the nightlight illuminated Sasori’s shaggy red hair and smooth cheekbones.

“What’s going on today?” Sasori was speaking to himself. “Such a strange day…”

“It’s our anniversary,” Deidara supplied. “Four years ago today, we became partners. I thought you remembered everything, Danna, mn.””

Sasori blinked, the mechanical irises of his grey-brown ocular implants adjusting to the miniscule change in brightness this action caused.

“Became…partners?” he said slowly. “Our… anniversary?”

He checked the date, checked his memories… Deidara was right. Exactly four galaxy-standard years ago, on this day, they had begun their partnership. On that day Sasori had been 30 years 9 months 0 days old, Deidara 14 years 3 months 3 days. That made Deidara now… 18 years 3 months 3 days 4 hours and 29 minutes old, according to the biometric scan he had taken that first day. He was not a child anymore. When had that happened?

Deidara wriggled in his blanket so that he could extract his arms from the straps. He unclipped the upper straps and sat up.

“We’ve been partners for four years… mn.”

Correct.

“So?”

“So we’ve spent a lot of time together,” Deidara continued.

“So?”

Deidara pursed his lips. Maybe he wasn’t going to get anywhere with this. Maybe he should just give up now. Sasori couldn’t _really_ feel anything. He wasn’t human anymore. Any emotion Deidara had ever observed had been nothing but an echo.

“Forget it, mn,” Deidara sighed, turning his face away and batting aside a carved seashell he’d picked up on a mission to Nami as it drifted across his lap.

Then Sasori cupped Deidara’s cheek, the same gesture he’d used earlier in the gravity machine room, but this time he wasn’t upside down. He pulled Deidara’s gaze back and met his eyes.

“I can’t,” Sasori whispered, his expression distraught. He looked so human…

“Danna…” Deidara breathed. His heart was beating so loudly that it was almost deafening to Sasori’s sensors.

“I don’t…”

Sasori placed his palm on Deidara’s chest, then pulled his own torso close. Deidara gasped a whisper of a gasp. Sasori pressed his chest into Deidara’s and Deidara’s heart beat between them, beat for both of them. Deidara stretched his arms around Sasori’s back, clutching at the soft material of his shirt and resting his chin on Sasori’s shoulder. Sasori’s short hair tickled Deidara’s cheek.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Sasori said softly.

“I’m not going anywhere, Danna, mn,” Deidara laughed, hugging him closer. “Not yet, anyway…”

Sasori pulled back and searched his eyes. “Do you have plans?”

Deidara recoiled at the frightening intensity in Sasori’s eyes. There was no doubt in his mind now: Sasori was still capable of strong emotions, even in this inhuman body. Deidara couldn’t even choke out a response at first. He shook his head while he found his words.

“I take everything one moment at a time, Danna. You know that, mn. I can’t make any promises…”

“Fine.” It sounded like Sasori was pouting, but his face was expressionless once again. Deidara’s head was spinning from trying to interpret these reactions.

“So…?” It was Deidara’s turn to probe. “What next?”

“Next?”

Deidara’s temper flared in frustration. “Yeah! What’s next, mn?”

“What do you mean? We’ll be arriving on Kiri in five hours and for—”

“I don’t mean with the mission!” Deidara exclaimed, releasing and pushing Sasori away as he threw his hands up in exasperation. This action sent Sasori drifting across the bed over Deidara’s legs. “I mean—I mean—I mean with—!”

Sasori allowed himself to drift until his back was up against the wall beside Deidara’s bed. He grabbed onto an exposed pipe there to stabilize himself.

“I think you’re reading too much into this,” Sasori said matter-of-factly.

Deidara blushed bright red.

“Am I??” he shouted at his legs, unable to look up at Sasori. He twisted his fingers into his blanket. “Maybe you should just get out of here then, if there’s nothing more to talk about, mn.”

“No…” Sasori tried to make his voice soft and soothing. He’d upset Deidara—that had not been his intention. He needed to try again. He pushed himself off the wall to land softly on the bed beside Deidara, grabbing the straps holding Deidara’s legs in place. In three swift movements, he’d extended the straps and slipped his left leg in alongside Deidara’s.

“Lie back down,” Sasori commanded.

Deidara lay back.

Sasori stretched his body over the top of Deidara’s and pressed his ear to Deidara’s chest to listen to that heart beat again.

“Relax,” Sasori commanded.

“I’m trying…”

Deidara’s heart was racing. His body was warm.

“I see,” Sasori said to himself. “Why?”

“What?” Deidara was annoyed again. “What are you talking about, mn?”

“I’m sorry, I just… I don’t know what I’m doing,” Sasori confessed. “I’m trying to figure something out…”

“And what’s that?!” Deidara said hotly. “Whether not I like you? Well, I like you, you stupid fucking robot! Mn!”

“Yes, but why?” Sasori mused, still listening intently to Deidara’s heart.

“What the—what kind of a question is that??” Deidara almost pushed him away, but he couldn’t quite move his arms—Sasori had him pinned.

“I’m… alright, fine. No more questions.” It probably wouldn’t help matters to tell Deidara he was just collecting data. “Do you mind if I stay here?”

“What, like, right here? On top of me?”

“Will it disrupt your rest?”

“It will if you keep asking me dumbass questions like that, mn,” Deidara shot back. He finally wrested his arms free and wrapped them around Sasori’s back.

He placed a hand on the back of Sasori’s head and nuzzled closer.

“Of course you can stay. I already told you I like you, Sasori-no-baka, mn.”

“Rude,” Sasori retorted.

“Deactivate night light, mn,” Deidara told his room. The lights went out.

In the darkness, with Sasori pressing so close to him, Deidara found it impossible to sleep. It was a strange sensation: Sasori had no human odor and his body felt light as a feather in zero-G. It was nothing like embracing a human body. But when had Deidara even last held someone? He’d embraced friends and teammates back when he’d been in Iwa’s Explosion Corps, even shared a pre-teen kiss, but after that… had there ever been time for even a fleeting crush? Was he only drawn to Sasori because they spent so much time together? Or was this really…

Deidara shifted a little, bringing his face close to Sasori’s.

“Can I kiss you?” he whispered.

“No,” was Sasori’s immediate response.

Deidara stared. His mouth worked open and shut, but no words came out.

“After all that?” he finally spluttered. “After all that, you—”

Sasori silenced Deidara with a finger on his lips.

“Sleep. Let’s take this one moment at a time, alright?”

Deidara fumed to have his own words thrown back at him like that. But he kept his silence. The seconds stretched on.

Finally, he spoke: “I really can’t sleep.”

“I’ll help you,” Sasori soothed.

He wrapped his hand around the back of Deidara’s head, sensing for the right area of the brain. Then, extending a thin needle of chakra, he stimulated Deidara’s brain to release the necessary chemicals to send him to sleep.

As Deidara’s heartrate slowed and his breaths became longer, Sasori pulled himself closer and replayed his memories of the day once more. Their fourth anniversary as partners. Indeed.


End file.
